My how times and plans change! I just checked this thread after at least a year or two of neglect to find none of my pics were working any more. So I added a new (old) pic and updated some mods and links in the text. Most of that is up to date now.

I'm totally bailing on the 17" winter wheels idea. Finances and old, useless-in-the-snow winter tires demand I make other plans. So in the next couple months (winter 2010) I'm planning on some 15" Continental Extreme Winter Contact (http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp?tireMake=Continental&tireModel=ExtremeWinterContact) tires for this snowboard season.